Speaking doctors

Impressive powers of observation. I get that line out of a movie. Its a Saturday, after a hard working Saturday. Last two weeks have been work, work and work. Father of the nation would have been happy if he 'd have seen the oncology team work. With the day starting at eight and continuous work till the other eight. With minimal breaks, for tea, prayers, food. Its just work. The patients sick, some very sick. We sweat it out hard. But its a great team. Great team can do wonders. Everybody doing their own bit, helping out the other in time of need. The nation's got to learn from us. We are turning into role models. Role of model, as my mom calls it. And she is not being funny. Funny she is not. I'm yet to meet a more serious person. Workaholic to shopaholic Friday night, on my return home, I stop at 'Time Medicos' to get some stuff I ve been thinking about for so many days. When I reach home, I have coconut milk, tinned pineapple, two packs of slims, cof...

May it all be peaceful. 25th December. A day of many an important events. A day a jalsa is planned. Jalsa in the city of lights. A city filled with all ethinicities. A city with Sindhis, Pathans, Balochis, Muhajirs, Panjabis…. They all live together in harmony and the leaders make them lock horns as and when they require. The rich getting richer, the poor poorer. On one end there are those without the basic necessities of life and on the other the other divide living a lavish life. But for how long. Things wont correct on their own or would they. One simple rule. Correct yourself. Be honest. Remind yourself that there is someone  watching. There constantly is. How will we answer. What will we answer. The explanation will be lame. There will be no turning back from then on. What’s done would be done. No replays no undos.   The Jalsa And then when a Jalsa is arranged in the city of lights people like myself get worried. May it all be peaceful. Who wins at the end doesn’t ...

A day off in the middle of the week is just crazy. A day of nothingness. Waking up at two means that now your head aches because of lying prone for so long. You are not sure whether to lunch or breakfast. The rest of the family continues with their routine. You seem just awestruck. Slightly encephalopathic. Power failure again. I drag myself with my cup of tea and my unfinished novel, 'Eve Green',  towards the bench. The sun decides to glare right into my face. A powerful one. I reconnect with the novel from where I had left it. A novel about a redhead whose mother decides to die and now the redhead, Evangeline is left to bear with her grandparents in the country. A tale told with childlike excitement and naievity . Evangeline, an interesting name. A name that men just get entangled into. A day off in the middle of the week is just crazy. I have to remind myself that its Tuesday. That I don't have to wake up early. Tomorrow its day duty again. Now how can one wake up ...

I 'll give myself five minutes to write this piece. Dr Zarka, your time starts now. On call again. Dr S is passing A-line on a patient. I told him that I ll pass it , he said, that patient has only one arm for experimentation, and he ll pass it. Of course I wont listen. Just then Dr Saeed calls. I give him a review of the patients. Once I'm done , Dr S is nowhere to be seen. I search all over the ICU. Oh....... He is standing all scrubed to pass A-line! The nurse asks me to enter nebulizing drugs for this patient. I tell her, "This is Dr S's patient, he ll enter the drug!". I walk away. Still two minutes to spare. Just now the unit receptionist calls. He wastes one minutes Patient's family arrives for update. Five minutes end here.....

  "Hay ye josh a junoon, hay yay apna yaqeen, woh jo tum may hay dum wo kisee main naheen!"   Rough call. The whole week, only one patient is admitted. My call , three new patients arrive and one of them dies. Very very postcall. Just when I had started having breakfast, one of my patient underwent code. Wow. the omellete had never tasted better!The tea just fab. Timing all wrong! One day when I ll look back, I ll probably be proud of myself, but now..... First there was the Lawn fever. Huge bill boards of unknown fabric, famous models, ordinary prints. This was then followed by cricket fever. For almost a month the team that we thought won't even make to the quarter finals easily, made us sit on the edge of our chairs and scream out "Hay ye josh a junoon, hay yay apna yaqeen, woh jo tum may hay dum wo kisee main naheen!". Everybody was excited. Docs, nurses, house keeping staff, security. For once the whole nation, so many ethnicities and one thought, ...

Tired, rather drained out.We all feel that way. Maybe its the age.As I write these lines while still in CCU, out of the blue, Khalid (year one resident) all of a sudden, says, " Are you crying or do you have a runny nose!". He asks this with such empathy. I turn at him and seem bewildered. How does he know, that my heart is crying. Just then someone sniffs. Oh so Khalid heard those sniffs and correlated them with my very serious face. Both of us burst into laughter. That's what laughter is! After a period of two years, there is a wedding in my family, and the department does not have any replacement! Wow! Now that's news. So the scene is set. Family going to wedding. Me staying in hospital. The taking pictures with the bride and the bridegroom, while I can take all the pictures I want , with the ventilators, lines, canulas.Great fun. So lets take  a look at Matli. A place in interior Sindh where I was born. Small town. Two bazaars. One Government School for boys ...

Time : 0905 hours. Venue : CCU Thoughts : Empty  Reason : Postcall Its the twenty second of this month. Six more days of cardiology. Three more calls. So far so good. Thoughts : still empty. Everyone knows that I m in ICU next month except me. Thoughts : still empty. Lets keep it that way.

I had started to become bitter, yesterday’s call had not ended so nicely. I was about to write regarding people’s tempers, what makes them loose them. Why can’t they smile more often. I once read somewhere that people from the subcontinent have serious faces. Is it because of their economic state. People of Indonesia share the same financial crunch, but they smile!     Its spring, the rain says! Just as I was about to fume out, on this blog (to be exact), I woke up with the smells of parathas, fried eggs. The weather seemed strange, breezy hazy, and then it started to drizzle. I couldn’t help but smile.Its spring, the rain says! Spring brings in colour, hope..       The newspaper has a whole supplement about Faiz. I ‘ve never really been poetic, but his verses are beautiful And yes, its 13 Feb so we are celebrating 14 Feb tomorrow! The day when every one acts cheesy. Even the student lounge is displaying red hearts. Its interesting that this val...